Sheet aligning apparatus



Jan. 1962 J. A. WEIDENHAMMER 3,015,486

SHEET ALIGNING APPARATUS Filed April 20, 1959 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 )z 4/, 92 90 i PRINTING \94 I APPARATUS L. U l ,/15

INVENIOR JAMES Av WEIDENHAMMER SUGHRUE, ROTHWELL, MION AND ZINN ATTORNEYS Jan. 2, 1962 J. A. WEIDENHAMMER 3,015,436

SHEET ALIGNING APPARATUS Filed April 20, 1959 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 United States Patent 3,015,486 SHEET ALIGNING APPARATUS James A. Weidenhammer, Poughkeepsie, N.Y., assignor to International Business Machines Corporation, New York, N.Y., a corporation of New York Filed Apr. 20, 1959, Ser. No. 807,697

12 Claims. (Cl. 27158) This invention relates to improvements in an apparatus for aligning sheets or documents. More particularly, this invention relates to an apparatus for quickly and accurately aligning successive sheets which are to be fed to a printing apparatus such that each sheet is referenced with respect to its bottom edge and one end edge thereof so that the printing apparatus may record data parallel to the bottom edge of each of the sheets and in the same relative location on sheets of diverse size and type.

In banking and other commercial endeavors, a large number of documents such as checks, deposit slips and -the like, must be quickly and efiiciently handled. Hence, increasing emphasis is being placed on automation of the processing of these commercial documents. Machines are known in the prior art for automatic handling of documents such as checks in sorting and accounting operations, and these machines have been quite useful in the banking industry. Such a machine is shown, for example, in the patents to Fuller et al., bio/2,079,442 issued May 4, 1937, and No. 2,142,352, issued January 3, 1939. This type of manually controlled sorting machine has also been provided with means for printing on or endorsing the checks which are fed therethrough. Such an endorsing mechanism is shown in the patents to Brand No. 2,237,- 269, issued April 1, 1941, and Miller et al., No. 2,307,150, issued January 5, 1943. This invention relates to a document or check feeding device which may be used in combination with a modified type machine such as described in the patents noted above. 7

In the present-day processing of checks and the like, it is necessary to print various data on the documents so that sorting and accounting operations may be'performed by apparatus capable of readingthe data printed on the documents. A set of Arabic characters which may be printed in magnetic ink and read by magnetic transducers has been approved by the American Banking Association. To provide effective reading of data on documents of various sizes the data mustbe in the same relative position on each document.

In practice, for example, a bank depositor may be is sued a check book containing a plurality of checks having magnetic printing thereon for sorting according to the bank and depositor, but the amount of the check must be printed on to the check as it is processed by a bank after presentation for payment. However, individual checks issued by different banks are of such widely diverse sizes, thicknesses and characteristics of paper that specially designed means must be provided for aligning them prior to the printing operation so that the printed information will be in the same relative positionon each check. Furthermore, due to the characteristics of the known reading transducers, it is especially undesirable if the printed magnetic characters are skewed with respect to the direction of scanning of the characters during read- To provide the printing of information in the same location on each check of such a wide variety of sizes and types is a difficult problem, especially if the checks are fed in random fashion. The solution to this problem is to provide a means for aligning each of a succession of checks, no matter how widely they differ in individual size and characteristics, such that the checks are each referenced to one long edge and one end edge thereof, and

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then feeding the aligned checks to apparatus for presenting desired information at the same location on each check with reference to said reference edges thereof.

It is the principal object of this invention to provide an apparatus for aligning successive individual sheets, irrespective of their characteristics and sizes, within reasonable limits, with respect to one long edge and one end edge of each sheet such that desired information may be placed in substantially the same position on each successive sheet and will not be skewed with respect to the long edge of the sheet.

It is an additional object of th s invention to provide a sheet aligning mechanism which is rapid and efficient in operation and which will autom itically feed the sheets, after they have been correctly aligned and while maintaining that alignment, to means for performing a next upera-tion thereon such as recording and/ or printing of information at selected positions on the sheets.

Other objects of the invention will be pointed out in the following description and claims and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, which disclose, by way of example, the principles of this invention and the best mode which has been contemplated of applying these principles.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a partially schematic side elevation of the sheet aligning apparatus of this invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the apparatus shown in FIG. 1 with certain parts omitted and others, broken away for clarity.

FIG. 3 is a schematic View of the driving mechanism for the sheet aligner.

FIG. 4 is a circuit diagram of the control circuit for operating the sheet aligner.

In general, this invention contemplates providing a chute having stationary side walls and a removable trap door bottom wall for receiving checks or other documents which may widely vary in size and thickness. As a document is fed into the chute, a rotatable paddle member extending through one of the side walls and backed up by a backing roll extending through the other side wall provides a diagonally directed force tending to drive the document toward the bottom wall or trap door of the chute and also toward one end'of the chute. Positioned at the end of the chute toward which the document is directed is a roller which is constantly rotating in a direction to tend to force the document downwardly. The periphery of this roller is in the shape of a pair of frusto-conical members positioned with their small ends facing each other which sandwich a narrow constantdiameter portion therebetween. With this arrangement, documents fed into the chute will rapidly be referenced with their long edge against the bottom wall or trap door of the chute and their end edge against the end roll. When the document is aligned in the chute, a detecting means, such as a photocell unit, detects the presence of the aligned document and actuates a circuit which causes an intermittent feed to start, thereby moving idler rollers into position against constantly rotating feed rollers to applya vertically directed force to the aligned document. After the aligned document is under control of the vertically driving feed rollers the trap door is opened. The vertical driving force is sufficiently greater than the diagonal force so as to quickly and accurately feed the document in a vertical direction out of the chute to a printing apparatus or the like in a correctly referenced position.

Referring to the drawings, a chute 10 is provided, and this chute may be in the environment of a sorting and check-endorsing machine such as shown and described in the patent to Fuller et al, No. 2,079,442, Fuller et al., No. 2,142,352, and Brand, No. 2,237,269, which may be further modified by the provision of a printing appara- 3 tus 11 for printing magnetic characters in a reference location on the checks. A rotatable sorting drum 15,:having a plurality of sorting compartments such as shown in the aforesaid patents, is positioned beneath the printing apparatus 11 for receiving the sorted checks.

The chute has a pair of stationary side walls 12 and 14 with the upper openings thereof flared outwardly for receiving a sheet therein. The bottom oi the chute is closed by a bottom wall or trap door 16 which is pivotally mounted about a pivot pin 18 supported by brackets 19 from the side wall 14. A lug 20 is attached to the trap door 16, and to an arm 22, which arm is also at tached to a rotary solenoid 24. Thus, operation of the rotary solenoid 24 will pivot the trap door 16 out of its chute-closing position shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 in full lines to the position 16' shown in FIG. 1 in dottted lines. Biasing means (not shown) act to return the trap door 16 to chute closing position when solenoid 24 is de-energized.

Means are provided to exert a diagonally directed force upon a sheet positioned in the chute 10, and these means include a paddle wheel 26 having a plurality of flexible plastic paddles, positioned such that the outer end of the paddles extends through a slot 28 in the side wall 12 of the chute 10. The paddle wheel 26 is rotatably mounted on a fixed support member 30, and is adapted to be constantly driven by a belt 32 trained over pulleys 34 and 36. A back-up idler roll 38 is positioned on side 14 of the chute 10 opposite the paddle wheel 26 to cooperate therewith and back up the diagonal force exerted by the paddle wheel. The periphery of the back-up roll 38 extends through a slot 40 in the side wall 14 of the chute 10.

At the end of the chute toward which the diagonal force of paddle wheel 26 is directed, there is positioned an end aligning and referencing means in the form of an end roller 42 which is constantly driven in the direction denoted by the arrow in FIG. 2 to tend to force the sheets downwardly against the bottom of the chute. The roller has a periphery in the shape of a pair of frustums of a right circular cone 44 and 46, the small ends of which are separated by a narrow cylindrical portion 48. The position of minimum diameter cylindrical portion 48 de termines the reference position of the end edge of a sheet in the chute 10 and also determines the position of the plane of a sheet in the chute. The shape of the periphery and the rotation of end roller 42 prevents the sheets from canting as they are driven there against by the diagonal force exerted by the paddle wheel 26.

The end roller 42 is attached to shaft 50 which is continuously driven by bevel gear 52 from bevel gear 54. A shaft 56 is continuously driven by means of pulley 58 and belt 69 to continuously drive both the paddle wheel '26 and the end roller 42. V

A pair of continuously driven vertical feed rolls 62 and 64 are fixed to a shaft 66 which is continuously driven by a bevel gear 68 in mesh with a bevel gear 70 attached to the end roller 42 The vertical feed rolls continuously rotate in the direction of the arrow in FIG. 2. v

A pair of backing idler rollers 72 and 74 extend through vertical slots in the side 12 of chute 10 and selectively cooperate with vertical feed rolls 62 and 64, respectively, to provide a relatively heavy vertical feeding force on 'a sheet positioned in the chute 10. v d

The backing idler rollers 72 and 74 are each freely carried by one end of a respective bell crank 76, each of which is pivoted about a stationary pivot rod 78 by means of a respective cam 80 cooperating with a cam follower roller 82 on its other end. Suitable means, not shown, bias the cam follower, rollers 82 against their earns 80. Thus, rotation of cams 80 in the direction shown by the arrow in FIGURE 1 selectively cause cranks 76 to pivot about the rod 78 to position the rollers 72 and 74 in sheet contacting position to back up the vertical drive rollers 62 and 64 and accomplish a vertical downward drive on any sheet thcrebetween in the chute 10. Also associated with one earn is a limit switch 99 which follows the contour of cam 80 in a slight lagging phase with respect to cam follower roller 82.

Sheet detecting means in the form of a photocell unit 84 is positioned adjacent to and near the bottom of the end ofthe chute 10 adjacent the roller 42. A beam of light from a suitable light source 81 is directed through holes 86in the chute 10 to actuate a photocell in the circuit shown in FIG. 4, depending upon whether or not the light is interrupted by a sheet aligned in the chute 10.

The drive for the unit is shown schematically in FIG. 3 and is accomplished from a driving motor 87 which is constantly rotating the drive shaft 88 and hence, shaft 56 through belt 60 and pulleys 89 and 58. As explained above and as shown in FIG. 2, the constantly rotating drive shaft 56 rotates the paddle wheel 26, the vertical feed rolls 62, 64, and the end roller 42.

An intermittent drive is provided for a shaft 83 mounting the cams 80 and a feed roller 90 which is backed up by an idler roller 91. As shown in FIGURE 1, rollers 90 and 91 are positioned below chute 10 so as to grasp a sheet which is being driven downward through the open trap door '16. The intermittent driving force is transmitted by belt 92 trained over pulleys 93 and 94. Shaft 95, which carries the pulley 94, is coupled to shaft 88 by means of an electromagnetically actuated clutch 96. When the clutch 96 is actuated so as to connect shaft 88 to shaft 95, the pulley 93'fixed to the shaft 83 will be rotated to rotate roller 90 and cams 80. However, when the clutch 96 is de-energized and disconnected, the roller 90 and cams 80 will not be driven and will remain at rest until clutch 96 is again energized. A

A suitable circuit for accomplishing the objects of this invention is shown in FIG. 4. A source of electrical power is applied to the circuit by means of manual switch 97. The light bulb 81 of the photocell unit 84 energizes the photocell 85 so as to operate a relay 98 and thus open a switch 79 if there is not a sheet in aligned position to interrupt the light beam striking the photocell 85. The limit switch 99 has two contacts 100 and 101 controlling, respectively, the rotary solenoid 24 and the magnetic clutch 96. Since these contacts are open at this time, due to the stationary position of its associated cam 80 as shown in FIG. 1, clutch 96 and relay 24 are not energized.

When a sheet appears in aligned position in the chute 10, the photocell 85 is de-energized, allowing relay 98 to drop out, thereby allowing switch 79 to close and to energize the clutch 96. Upon energization of the magnetic clutch 96, the shaft starts rotating to rotate. pulley 93,.

rollers 90' and cams 80. The rises on cams 80 will force vertical feed idler rolls 72 and 74 into sheet contacting position and thereafter close the contacts of the limit switch 99. The rotary solenoid 24 is energized through limit switch contact and operates to pivot trap door 16 away from chute closing position. The unit is designed to remove the trap door 16 from the bottom of the chute immediately after the vertical feed rollers takes over the control of the aligned sheet. The vertical force exerted by the vertical feed rollers 62, 72 and 64, 74 is sufiicient to completely overcome the diagonal force of the diagonallydirected paddle wheel 26, and the sheet is sufiicie'ntly wide such that it will be under control of the vertical feed rollers until after it is taken into the nip of roll 90 and back-up roll 91, thus always assuring a true vertical feed and eliminating anyeifects of the paddle wheel 26.

As the sheet is fed in aligned fashion through the roll 90 and the backing rolls 91, it may be endorsed or otherwise marked by indicia carried by roll 9%) as disclosed in the aforesaid Miller et a1. patent, No. 2,307,150, and may be fed in its aligned position to a printing mechanism 11 for printing information thereon in a desired position.

The sheet is then subsequently fed into one of the sorting compartments of the rotatable wheel 15.

The limit switch 99 is adapted to be actuated and closed by the raised portion of one of the cams S to continue to hold the magnetic clutch and rotary solenoid energized after the aligned sheet is not longer interrupting the light in photocell unit 84. The reason for this is as follows. After switch 79 establishes a circuit energizing the magnetic clutch 96 and causes the rotary solenoid 24 to be subsequently energized, the sheet which interrupts the light beam on the photocell 85 will eventually be fed completely out of the chute. Before this occurs, however, the contacts 1130 and 101 of the limit switch 99 provide auxiliary circuits to hold clutch 96 and solenoid 24 energized after switch 79 opens due to photocell 85 again receiving light. Upon further rotation of the cam 86 and roller 90, the sheet will be fed to the printing apparatus 11 and, after the upper edge of the sheet has passed from rollers 90 and 91 the next low point of cam 80 will allow limit switch 99 to open, thereby de-energizing magnetic clutch 96 and rotary solenoid 24. This stops the intermittent drive of the roller 90 and cams 80, and also allows the trap door 16 to close due to its aforementioned bias. Clutch 96 and solenoid 24 remain de-energized until another fully aligned sheet in chute causes switch 79 to close. a

The operations of the sheet aligning device will now be described. A plurality of checks or other documents which may he subsequently sorted and printed upon, as well at totalized in various ways, may be positioned in a stack on a suitable stacking apparatus such as shown in Fuller et al., No. 2,142,352. The checks may then be manually fed into the chute 10 one at a time, with the bottom edge of the check being down. As the check enters the chute, it is acted upon by the continuously rotating paddle wheel 26 to apply a sufiicient, diagonal force to the check so as to force it rapidly toward one end of the chute 10 against aligning roller 42. During this entry and aligning time, the magnetic clutch 96 is disengaged so that the vertical idler backing rollers 72 and 74 are pivoted away from cooperation with vertical drive rollers 62 and 64. The check is quickly aligned against the small diameter portion 48 of end roller 42 and is thrust down with its bottom edge against the trap door 16. As the check comes into final alignment, the photocell unit 84 operates to start the intermittent drive by actuating magnetic clutch 96. Cams 80 cause the idler backer rollers 7'2 and 74 to close on the check and immediately thereafter the rotary solenoid 24 is actuated to open the trap door 16. The check is driven vertically downward out the bottom of the chute 10 into the nip of the roller 90 and the backing roller 91. The check issufiiciently wide to always be under control of either the vertical feed roller 72'or the feed rollers 90 and 91, or both. Thus it cannot become misaligned by the light diagonal force of the paddle wheel 26.

The aligned check, which may be endorsed by the roller 90, is fed, under control of the roller 90 in an aligned position to suitable printing apparatus 11 in which information may be printed on the check parallel to its bottom edge. The check may then be delivered to a desired compartment on the rotary drum 15.

While there have been shown and described and pointed out the fundamental novel features of the invention as applied to the preferred embodiment, it will be understood that various omissions and substitutions and changes in the form and details of the device illustrated and in its operation may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention. It is the intention, therefore, to be limited only as indicated by the scope of the following claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A sheet aligning device comprising; a chute for receiving individual sheets, a pair of side walls forming the sides of the chute, a movable trap door adapted to selectively close the bottom of said chute, means for moving said trap door to and from chute bottom closing position, a driven rotatable member having a stationary axis disposed at an angle to the plane of the bottom of the chute, the periphery of the rotatable member adapted to contact a side of a sheet in the chute to apply a diagonally directed force thereto to drive said sheet toward the bottom and one end of said chute, and a rotatable end roller having a small diameter portion thereon at the end of the chute toward which said sheet is driven, the small diameter portion forming a positioning stop for an end edge of said sheet.

2. A sheet aligning device comprising; a chute for receiving individual sheets, said chute having a pair of side walls, a movable trap door adapted to selectively cover and close the bottom of said chute, means for moving said trap door to and from chute bottom closing position, means for applying a diagonally directed force to a sheet positioned in said chute to drive said sheet toward the bottom and one end of said chute, a rotatable end roller having a small diameter portion thereon at the end of said chute toward which said sheet is driven, the small diameter portion forming a positioning stop for an end edge of said sheet, means for detecting the arrival of a sheet in aligned position against said rotatable end roller and against said trap door, and means responsive to said detecting means for actuating said trap door from chute bottom closing position.

3. A sheet aligning device as defined in claim 2 further comprising'means for engaging said sheet in said chute before said trap door is moved from chute bottom closing position, said means exerting a vertically directed force thereupon, said vertically directed force being sufficiently strong to completely overcome said diagonally directed force.

4. An apparatus for correctly aligning individual sheets with reference to the bottom and one edge thereof, said apparatus comprising; a chute for receiving individual sheets one at a time, said chute having fixed side walls and a movable bottom trap door, a rotatable end edge stop member positioned at one end of said chute and having a periphery increasing in diameter from a small diameter section'at the desired sheet referencing .position, and a rotatable member adapted to apply a diagonally directed force to the sides of a sheet in said chute to drive one edge of the sheet against the trap door bottom of said chute and drive an adjacent edge of the sheet against said end edge stop member.

.5. An apparatus for correctly aligning individual sheets with reference to the bottom and one end edge thereof, said apparatus comprising; a chute for receiving individual sheets one at a time, said chute having fixed side walls and a movable bottom trap door, rotatable means at one end of said chute forming a stop and a sheet edge referencing position, and arotatable paddle member positioned diag onal'ly of the chute side Walls and extending therethrough to exert a diagonally directed force upon a sheet in said chute to drive said sheet against said trap door and said end edge stop rotatable means, thereby referencing the bottom and side edge of said sheet with said trap door and said rotatable end edge means respectively.

6. An apparatus for correctly aligning individual sheet with reference to the bottom and one end edge thereof, said apparatus comprising; a chute for receiving individual sheets one at a time, said chute having fixed side walls and a movable bottom trap door, a rotatable end edge stop member positioned at one end of said chute and having a periphery increasing in diameter from a small diameter section at the desired sheet referencing position, and a rotatable paddle member positioned diagonally of the chute side walls and extending therethrough to exert a diagonally directed force upon a sheet in said chute to drive said sheet against said trap door and said end edge stop rotatable member, thereby referencing the bottom and side edge of said sheet with said trap door and said 7 small diameter section of said rotatable end edge member respectively.

'7. An apparatus for correctly aligning individual sheets as defined in claim 6 further comprising means operatively connected to said trap door for opening said trap doorand allowing said sheet to move out of said chute, when said sheet is in aligned position.

8. An apparatus for correctly aligning individual sheets with reference to the bottom and one end edge thereof, said apparatus comprising; a chute for receiving. individual sheets one at a time, said chute having fixed side walls and a movable bottom trap door, a rotatable end edge stop member positioned at one end of said chute and having a periphery increasing in diameter from a small diameter section at the desired sheet referencing position, a rotatable paddle member positioned diagonally of the chute side walls and extending through one of said side walls to exert a diagonally directed force upon a sheet in said chute to drive said sheet against said trap door and against said end edge stop rotatable member, thereby referencing the bottom and side edge of said sheet with said trap door and said small diameter section of said rotatable end edge member respectively, means connected to said trap door for opening said trap door and allowing said sheet to move out of said chute, when said sheet is in aligned position, and means for selectively engaging said sheets in said chute before said trap door is moved from chute closing position, said engaging means exerting a downwardly directed force uponsaid'sheet to thereby drive said sheet vertically downward out of said chute, said force exerted by said last-recited means being sulficiently greater than the force exerted by said diagonally positioned rotatable paddle member such that the force exerted by said diagonally positioned rotatable paddle member will not affect the vertically downward feeding of said sheet.

9. An apparatus for correctly aligning individual sheets as defined in claim Sfurther comprising photoelectric detecting means positioned adjacent the bottom corner of said chute at the end thereof where said rotatable end edge stop member is positioned, said photoelectric means being operable to start said means for opening said engaging trap door and said means for exerting a vertically directed force upon the sheet in said chute.

10. An apparatus for aligning sheets with reference to a long and an adjoining short edge thereof and for feeding said aligned sheets 'to a printing apparatus or the like while in aligned position, said apparatus comprising; a stationary chute adapted to receive documents of varying dimensions in random order, a movable trap door selectively covering the bottom of said chute, a rotatable end roller having a narrowed diameter at desired document referencing position and flaring outwardly to wider portions, said end roller being positioned at one end of said chute, a means for directing a light diagonal force through the walls of said chute to a sheet positioned therein to force the long edge of said sheet against the bottom of said chute and a short end edge of the sheet against said end-aligning roller, means for detecting the presence of a sheet in said chute in aligned position, and means responsive to said detecting means for applying a vertically downward-directed force upon said sheet in said chute and opening said trap door.

11. An apparatus for aligning sheets with respect to a long and short adjoining edge thereof and feeding said sheets in aligned condition to a printing apparatus or the like, said sheet aligning and feeding device comprising; a chute having a pair of sidewalls, a pivotable trap door positioned at the bottom of said chute, means for pivoting said trap door out of chute closing position, an aligning end roller positioned at one end of said chute and having a narrow diameter groove portion thereon, a rotatable paddle wheel and back-up idler extending through the side walls of said chute and adapted to apply a diagonally directed force upon a sheet in said chute to force said sheet to the bottom of said chute and to the end thereof against said end roller, a pair of vertical feed rollers positioned in said chute and a pair of idler rollers selectively movable to abutting relationship with said vertical feed rollers and adapted to selectively apply a vertical force upon a sheet in said chute, a pair of bottom rollers positioned beneath said trap door of said chute for aiding in feeding a sheet out of sad chute, continuously rotating means for continuously driving said paddle Wheel, end roller and vertical feed rollers, intermittently actuated rotatable means for driving said bottom feed rollers and for pivoting said vertical feed idler rollers into sheet feeding position, a detecting unit positionedat the lower portion of said chute adjacent the end thereof where said end roller is positioned for detecting the presence of an aligned sheet, and an electrical circuit responsive to said detecting means for actuating said means to pivot said trap door and to start said intermittent drive.

12. Sheet aligning and feeding apparatus comprising a chute having a pair of spaced-apart stationary side walls, a trap door selectively closing the bottom of said chute, means for applying a force through the side walls of said chute diagonally upon a sheet positioned therein to force said sheet to the bottom and one end of said chute, end roller means positioned at the end of said chute toward which said sheet is driven, means for detecting the presence of an aligned sheet, and means responsive to said detecting means for moving said trap door out of chuteclosing position and vertically feeding said sheet out of said chute without being affected by said diagonally direeted force.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED vSTATES PATENTS 2,165,161 Spiess July 4, 1939 2,451,752 Lake et al. Oct. 19, 1948 2,757,928 Thomas Aug. 7, 1956 2,813,612 Berglund et al Nov. 19, 1957 2,845,122 Lake et al. July 29, 1958 2,893,731 Nordquist July 7, 1959 

